SXSW: Fun and Videogames with Jason Bateman at ‘Bad Words’ Premiere

AUSTIN – If it were up to Rohan Chand, the boy wonder and spelling bee champion who befriends Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman) in “Bad Words,” everyone at the film’s SXSW after-party would be sitting in front of their Dell-gifted tablets playing video games.

“They’re my favorite part of the festival,” Chand said, once again mentioning the computer brand. “They gave me an 18-inch tablet. It’s awesome.” The child actor, who also played a role opposite Mark Wahlberg in “Lone Survivor,” cozied up to Bateman, who kept a watchful eye on his young costar.

“I love the way this film played, they laughed at so many different things than the Toronto audience,” Bateman (pictured) told Variety. “Bad Words” first bowed at Toronto last year, an “auspicious debut,” according to Variety‘s chief film critic Justin Chang, for both Bateman as director and Andrew Dodge, the film’s screenwriter.

The 89-minute film follows Bateman’s character, a 40-something who finds a loophole in the national spelling bee and works his way in.

At the after party, packed with people writing down their own bad words and taking photo booth style selfies that could be instantly uploaded to Twitter, Bateman made sure to embrace his costar, Kathryn Hahn, with whom he walked the red carpet a few days ago at the film’s Los Angeles premiere.

“This just feels so good, having your film play at several festivals and being embraced so differently in both places,” he said.